Firefighters from Windsor Severance Fire Rescue respond to a house fire north of Windsor on June 20. / Courtesy of Todd Vess/Windsor-Severance Fire Rescu

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After running into issues with two fire hydrants in the past two years while responding to calls, Windsor-Severance Fire Rescue has decided to team up with North Weld County Water District to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Firefighters will now be more involved in the fire hydrant testing process to help ease the water district’s burden, according to WSFR spokesman Todd Vess.

“It’s a win-win situation,” Vess said. “For both entities and for the citizens.”

Talks turned to fire hydrant testing — which the water district is responsible for — one year ago after a May 2012 fire in which firefighters spent about 10 minutes connecting to a hydrant that didn’t work near 37131 Soaring Eagle Circle. The home was destroyed after a gas line on a grill ruptured.

More recently, on June 20, firefighters ran into a stuck “steamer cap” and couldn’t open the fire hydrant near a house just north of Windsor that had become engulfed in flames and was later declared a total loss.

Crews scrambled as one of the engines ran out of tank water. They were forced to run smaller lines of water from another hydrant east of the home.

They were able to put out the blaze, but with both malfunctioning hydrants belonging to the North Weld County Water District, questions started to rise about what could be done to avoid problems in the future.

Vess said representatives from the water district came out to check on the hydrants involved in the June 20 blaze.

“Tensions were high,” Vess said of the situation, referring back to the May 2012 incident that also ended in a destroyed home. “We didn’t start off on a good foot (with the water district).”

Don Posselt, North Weld County Water District manager, said the steamer cap that had been stuck during the June 20 fire came off within 30 seconds when it was tested the next day, and the hydrant had last been maintained July 13, 2012, when it was found to be in good condition.

The two agencies didn’t have a direct conversation until July 8, when fire rescue officials went to the water district’s board meeting to discuss how the two could work together.

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“We said, ‘We understand that this has already happened. We need to figure out how to make this not happen again,’ ” Vess said.

WSFR decided to share responsibility for testing some of the district’s hydrants.

Vess said he’s not sure when the testing will officially begin, but they’re working out the details.

In the meantime, WSFR has started to send at least one water tanker with fire crews, regardless of whether there are fire hydrants near the site of the fire or call.

“It’s a stressful situation when a house is on fire,” Fire Chief Herb Brady said in a previous Beacon article about the June 20 blaze. “You rely on your equipment to be operational. We handle fires differently when there is a hydrant.”

Brady is working on creating a formal account of the incident and what was done to remedy the hydrant issues. He plans to submit it to the Town Board.

Vess said since announcing that WSFR will help with testing fire hydrants around town, local residents have shown their support for the decision.

“They’re very happy about it,” Vess said.

“The outcome of this, it’s exactly what we were looking for — positive relationships and moving forward.”